The raw truth of the Guardian report on minorities (Minorities report: it’s still snowy white at the pinnacle, 25 September) is undeniable. But to make progress we need much more grainy detail than we have. What are “the positions of most power”? Are they all in the public sector or large corporations rather than in corner grocery shops or small or medium sized enterprises (chemist shops)?
We also need a breakdown of black and minority ethnic groups by their constituent groups. South Asians are reputed to prefer private sector jobs or self-employment rather than public sector or private corporate sector jobs. Are these positions of power?
We know that in educational achievements – A-level results, for example – south Asian and Chinese students do better than white and African-Caribbean groups. Do income differences reflect the same gap as the number of people in upper ranks? Are we mixing up class and race? After all, gender discrimination is colour blind. More data and more analysis, please.
Meghnad Desai
Labour, House of Lords
• Don’t be so hard on the black and minority ethnic groups in Britain. They seem to be doing pretty well from what the survey you report shows (Only 3% of UK’s most powerful are from ethnic minorities, 25 September). The “fact” that 3.4% of the UK’s most powerful are from ethnic groups is pretty amazing; I put fact in quotes because this report is based on a survey of just 1,049 people across 39 categories.
But it is hardly surprising that not many are at the top when you know that people in the BAME group account for just 13% of the total population, and almost all of them have been in the UK for less than 50 years. In addition, roughly half of them had English as their second language, so few of the first arrivals will have had higher education of any sort. And even the second generation has only been in the world of higher education and work in the past 20-30 years, so it’s a bit much to expect them to have risen to the top already.
This is especially so since most of these top jobs require high academic qualifications, although I agree that many of the “professions” are virtually closed shops to most British people not from the same public school/Oxbridge trough. Now there’s an issue we could change.
David Reed
London
• The UK’s ethnic minorities are radically under-represented in positions of power and influence. How much worse, then, is the vast over-representation of white people in the UK (about 87%) compared with the 18% of whites in the world’s population. Should something be done? Perhaps also worrying is the disproportionately large number of non-whites compared with whites in the world – or the vast number of US Americans compared with Estonians.
I raise those points to remind us how we need to reflect far more on which disproportions matter. To demand “equal opportunities for all” is rather glib when it focuses on some minorities within UK borders, ignores those outside and also ignores vast numbers within the UK who, through poverty, upbringing or biology, have little chance of making use of opportunities, even if they were available.
Peter Cave
London
• Er… I don’t want a more ethnically diverse power elite; I don’t want a power elite, period.
Ian Watson
Brixham, Devon
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